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ISRAEL A<t A INST BE NJA MIK. 



■A 



A 



SERMON FOR THE TIMES : 



PKEACHED IN THE 



1st PRESB. CHURCH, DUBUQUE, IOWA, 



BY 



Ki:v. A. A. E. TAYLOR, Pastor. 



'■;! 



ih.^ 



PUBLISUED BY MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION. 



DUBUQUE, IOWA : 

UPHAM 4 GILMORB, PRINTERS, TI.ME8 BOOK AND JOB ROOMS. 
1861. 



ISRAEL A G A I lYS T B E NJA M IN. 



SERMON FOR THE TIMES : 



PKKACHED 



SABr.ATII MOllNING, APRIL 2S, 

AND REPEATED, BY BEQUEST, 

SABBATH EVENING, MAY 26, 1861. 



Ist PRESB. CHURCH, DUBUQUE, IOWA, 



Rev. a. a. E. TAYLOR, Pastok. 



I'UI'.LISIIED BY members OF THE CONGREGATION. 



DUBUQUE, IOWA: 

UPHAM k OILMOnE, PRINTERS, TIMES UOOK AND JOB ROOMM 
1861. 



SERMON. 



And the children ftf Israol went up nnd wept before the Lord until even, and asked connsel of the 
Lord, saying, Shall I go up again to liattle against the children of Benjamin, my brother J And tho 
Lord said, Go up against him. — Jobqks, xx. 23. 

That was an incalculably sad and solemn day in Israel, when 
word came of the transgression of Benjamin and its armed revolt 
against the nation. 

A man of the tribe of Levi, with his concubine, came to Gibeah, 
a city of the tribe of Benjamin, to sojourn for the night. Certain 
riotous sons of Belial, learning of their presence, beset the house 
in which they lodged, and despite the earnest remonstrance and 
entreaty of the hospitable master of the house, persisted in the con- 
summation of an infamous wrong to the stranger, and the aggra- 
vated murder of his companion. And when the wronged man 
sent his thrilling message through the other tribes, they were all 
assembled, and "Knit together as one man," and sent messengers 
to the offending tribe, requu'ing that they should deliver up 
the authors of that iniquity to receive their just punishment. 
" But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of 
their brethren the children of Israel, but gathered themselves to- 
gether to go out and battle against the children of Israel." And 
when the other tribes were gathered before one of then' cities, the 
Benjamites came forth and attacked, and defeated them. And 
then it is that the words of the text appear in the record, "And the 
children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until even, 
and asked counsel of the Lord, saying. Shall I go up again to 
battle against the children of Benjamin, my brother? And the 
Lord said, Go up against him. 

I do not intend to endeavor to run an exact parallel between our 
national affairs to-day, and the circumstances of Benjamin's revolt. 
The analogy is sufficiently accurate, however, to guide us to tho 
method of attaining to our decision of christian duty, in our present 
fearful crisis. 



A portion of the tribes of oiir Israel have assembled themselves 
to defend certain of their numbers who have committed great 
wrongs in the nation, who have instigated and even compelled 
others to revolt. Xearly all of Benjamin have bound themselves 
together, for the armed support of these authors of iniquity; and 
when the nation has appeared with its forces, for the maintenance 
of its national laws and justice, belore one of their cities, they 
have come out and defeated its soldiers and have captured its fort- 
ress. And now the children of Israel being " Knit together as one 
man," for the support of their national existence and jiower, it is 
becoming in them, solemnly before Heaven, to consider and seek 
counsel of God, as to their duty in this emergency. And as one 
of the successors of those ministers of religion through whom Israel 
of old sought the will of God, I feel it to be my bounden duty to 
seek that counsel of God, and to bring it to you to-day. 

I am aware that this is a time when ill-balanced and prejudiced 
minds may, more than ever, seek to accomplish their fanatical and 
wicked ends — when demagogues may strive to ride into favor upon 
the wings of popular excitement, and stir up the people to unchris- 
tian and revengeful deeds. But whilst our caution should thus be 
greater now than ever before, and we shoald look with more than 
usual calmness and deliberation before we speak and act — remem- 
bering that words are deeds and deeds are history — yet it is a time 
when all should boldly take their stand, and firmly maintain before 
the world, their honest convictions of duty. This is a time when 
our Christian principle should make us all the more steadfast and 
firm in civic duty. And the force of public opinion, in a patriotic 
and Christian community, should be such as to compel every one 
w^ho stands in any position as a leader or public teacher, to make 
his opinions and the bearing of his influence known to all men, 
and that without even one solitary exception. For silence now is 
weakness to the caiise, and he that is not for us, is against ns. 

I wish to speak with that moderation, forbearance, and sense of 
justice, to all our countrymen, which is becoming in a Christian 
man, — not to arouse to unholy feeling, but calmly to point out the 
duty of considerate, eai'nest, servants of God, and not to draw back 
from the duty myself, even though it be sorrowful and scA'ere. 

You know that while this was a matter of mere party discussion, 
and was bound up in local politics, I, as one of many, have felt 
that higher interests demanded my whole attention, and my entire 
labors, without exception, have been earnestly devoted to the im- 
mediate work of saving souls and of advancing the Christian life 



in the hearts of my brethren. In those circumstances, I have felt, 
and still feel, that I Avas altogether riLrlit. Neither do I now deviate 
from my former opinions and principles. But this is a different 
hour. History, that sleeps in time of calm, has awaked and stalks 
fearfully on her hroad way to-day. The times have changed, and 
duty necessarily changes to meet them. The interests threatened 
are no longer merely local and temporary, but the 2)rosperity of 
the Church of God and of Christian liberty — the deepest interests 
the Christian heart can know — stands in the very centre of the 
question, as it now presents itself; just as the cause of God and 
right, was centered in the strife between Israel and Benjamin, in 
the days of which the text and context form the record. And pro- 
fessing to love thatcatise Avith all my heart, and placed here in the 
providence of God to Avork for it Avith all my might, I feel that it 
becomes my duty as a Christian Minister, (to say nothing of my 
duty as a patriot, AA'hich my religion can only strengthen,) to give 
the Avhole force of my personal and ministerial influence to the 
sacred cause of civil and religioiis freedom : as an Ambassador of 
God to seek His counsel and openly to declare it, Avhether men will 
hear or will forbear: both as a minister and as a man, as a Chris- 
tian and as a citizen, to give the Avhole power of my thought, word 
and deed, to the support of the common cause of our country and 
of God, believing that the poAvers that be are ordained of God. I 
now know no party nor local influence; I only know that the nation 
is trembling Avith the shock of hostile bloAvs, and I come instinct- 
lA'ely to aid in its rescue. 

But it will be said that Ave are the Ministers of the Prince of 
Peace. Even so. I recognize and embrace that truth Avith a joy- 
ful heart. But that does not imply that Ave are to preach peace at 
all hazards and upon every occasion, at the sacrifice of life, liberty 
and the enjoyment of religious freedom. That does not mean that 
we should not resist evil, even Avith the sAvord, Avhen it raises its 
bristling front in our face; that Ave should permit ourselves to be 
destroyed, and the cause of Christ to be overwhelmed, because Ave 
must not take the SAvord in self-defence. If it be otherAvise, then 
Israel Avas Avrong, Luther Avas Avrong, the brave old Covenanters 
of Scotland were wrong, our fathers Avho bought liberty Avith their 
shed blood Avcre wrong, all laAV that requires punishment as a re- 
straint against A'ice, is Avrong; all entirely Avrong. No, Hearers ! 
Christianity demands no coAvardly sacrifice of our dearest rights 
and privileges, no base surrender of all that is noble and good, 



6 

for the snko of the mere name of peace, for then that word 
peace, would become but a synonym with slavery and infinite deg- 
radation. Peace consists not merely in the absence of war — you 
cannot have true peace when oppression rules and human rights 
are trampled upon — there will still be war in the heart and in the 
act, when the ability to war is attained ; witness Poland and Hun- 
gary, long oppressed, but now like waking giants in the fresh 
morning's dawn. And if the Prince of Peace, according to proph- 
ecy, is to make war with the rebel host, surely for the preservation 
of the same truth, for the rescue of liberty and our dearest rights, 
when it comes at last to the stern necessity, we may war in the 
present for the establishment of future peace. War is often the 
only pathway to permanent peace, and sometimes the shortest 
road thereto. 

I am no advocate of war as such. I abhor it from my inmost 
soul. Would to God that it might be banished forever from the 
face of the earth. I would be the last to inaugurate or wage 
war. For the final settlement of any question, I would gladly 
make any personal sacrifice that it were possible for me to make 
with the consent of my conscience, in duty to God and to those 
whom God has committed to my keeping. Above all, war 
amongst brethren, so unnatural, so awfid, fills me with inexpressi- 
ble grief, and I shrink from it as from the touch of the plague. 

There are times, however, when we may not have permission to 
choose for ourselves, between war and honorable peace, but when 
we are forced to choose between war, on the one hand, and the 
loss of evei'y high privilege and liberty, civil and religious, on the 
other ; and then, of these two great evils, when I have to choose 
between them, and there is no escape, God foi'give me if I am 
wrong, but I must accept of the sword. It aj^pears that such a 
crisis has arisen at this time, and that between these two evils we 
are now compelled to make choice. I have invariably given my 
influence and my votes for those men and measures of compromise 
which I hoped would bring an honorable and lasting peace, even 
at the sacrifice of personal preferences and the longings of my 
heart for certain national conditions. I have prayed fervently and 
persistently for peace. I have nourished the thought of peace 
with most earnest desire, and as the sweet morsel in my heart. I 
have hoped for peace, hoping against fear, against sorrow, and 
even against hope itself. I have lived for years amongst the 
Southern people, and have fully sympathised with their supposed 



wrongs, in so far as I have felt that they were wronged, by public 
feeling or opinion, througli misunderstanding or fanaticism. Some 
of my dearest friends and kindred are with the Southern people to- 
day. It is the laud of a portion of my ancestry, and for years was 
the beloved home of iny choice. I love that home to-day; and 
who coiild help it? I love it all the more to-day, since I know 
that the noble State where I have lived, has refused to take part in 
this work of iniquitous rebellion, and because I am led to believe 
that she is loyal at heart, to the sacred cause.* I did not leave 
that home until called away by an indication of Providence, so 
plain that I could not resist it, when ordered by the Great Captain 
to this part of the field. 1 have hence thought, that I understood 
better than a vast majority of my friends here, the peculiar charac- 
teristics and modes of thought of that people, and have been better 
prepared to interpret and make allowances for them. And I have 
felt that they have misunderstood us, and that we have misunder- 
stood them. I know that they have loved their country as do we, 
and that they would have been as ready to shed their l)lood for it 
as are we, had a foreign foe done us wrong. They have done so 
in past days. But they have been betrayed. We certainly ouglit 
to make all the allowances for them that we can, in consistence 
with our duty to our whole country. We ought to do this as 
Cliristians and as American citizens ; as lovers of liberty, and as 
servants of God. And I not only believe that we are prepared to 
do it to the full, but that we have done it already. 

I am farther sure that not one of us would be willing to wage 
war against them if that dire necessity could be averted. And the 
prevalent feeling among all classes, and especially among all 
Christians, this day, is that of Israel, when they went up and 
wept before the Lord. Sorrow fills every heart; deep, earnest, 
prostrating "sorrow; — and if we may reverently repeat the words 
of our Savior's anguish, we are all ready to say, and have said, — 
"Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But I fear 
that it is not now possible, and that the will of the Lord must be 
done. 

If it were possible to purchase peace to-day, with any price 
short of religious freedom and the truth of Jesus, I for one, would 
agree to pay that price, willingly, heartily, joyfully. But it ap- 
pears that the day has passed, and that, in the words of a celebrat- 
ed father and orator of liberty, "there is now no election for us; 

*Kontucky. 



the war is actually begun." It remains not for lis to say what we 
■would do, in a certain enaergency ; what we would have done had 
the matter been in our hands; what we would like to have done 
or what we could have wished to have been done; but what it is 
our duty to do, as matters now stand before us. In this emergen-* 
cy that is now ujjon us, what shall we do ? Where shall we stand? 
And for myself, I am bold to say that I cannot see what any pat- 
riot, who will go weeping and sorrowing because of the sad neces- 
sity, in the spirit of true humility and self-distrust, and ask counsel 
of God, can be brought to feel it his duty to do, but to stand up 
boldly and heartily for our Country and our Government, estab- 
lished by the blood, consecrated by the prayers, and baptized in 
the tears of our sires — ^to uphold with all the powers that God has 
given him, our Constitution and Union, the seal and bond of our 
liberty and national existence^ 

There is a point however, indicated before, which Ave as Chris- 
tians, ought ever to bear fervently in mind. We do not battle with 
the Southern people, as such. I have no enmity against the South. 
On the contrary, I love them as brethren — as a part of my country- 
men. This is no war of roses — of parties contending for the mas- 
tery. Do not let it be North against South. We ought to love 
our whole country, and because one is Southern, we must not 
therefore, declare him an enemy. The nature of the contest for- 
bids this. We battle not for the North, but for the Union and the 
Constitution — for the permanency of the nation. The contest is 
between our country and all who oppose it, wherever they may 
stand, wherever may be their birthplace or present residence. 

I believe that the Southern people have been betrayed, have long 
since lost their liberty at home. Wise and honest men in their 
midst have so declared to me. Current events, for months past, 
have proved it. I blame the people in part. I blame their be- 
trayers more. The people should not have permitted themselves 
to be betrayed of their liberty. Many of them have heroically de- 
fended it; many of them do so defend it to-day. Others would 
thus defend it did they dare, except at the price of life. But by 
deep laid schemes of unprincipled leaders, actuated by I fear to 
say what kind of motives, the people have been delibei-ately de-- 
ceived, misinformed as to the intent of their Northern brethren, 
harangued, and excited by every possible means, by gross misrep- 
resentaitons and traitorous deeds; dragged on, in many cases, un- 
willing, and their voice silenced, until at last, they have been 



plunged into an armed contest, and so incited and compelled to 
the rebellious position in whicli they now stand, and from which 
the hand of terror will not lot them draw back. And under these 
circumstances, they have come to think that their institutions and 
liberties are endangered, and firmly to believe, whilst they are tak- 
ing arms for tyranny, that they are warring for their own rights. 
Would that it were not too late to undeceive them. Would 
that they could be undeceived. But this is not peruiitted them 
by those who have obtained ]jower over them. Being so deceived, 
I can, as a brother, pity them from the bottom of my lieart; but 
what must I do as a citizen ? Because they are blinded, because 
they have been betrayed and made to think that they are right, 
must we sit still, folding our arms, and allow our liberties to bo 
crushed with theirs? Must w(! too, suffer our freedom to be wrested 
from our grasp ? No ! It cannot be. We cannot help their being 
deceived, and if they have been persuaded, or forced, to take part 
with those who aim alike at the destruction of their liberty and 
our own, ui)on them must fall the dread responsibility; but it be- 
comes our duty to do all that lies in our power, with the help of 
God, not only to maintain our freedom, but to restore their liberty 
to them, even though we be compelled to do it with tlie edge of 
the sword and at the bayonet's point. 

I firmly believe, from my soul, that the battle to-day is that of 
Liberty against Tyranny. We can see the dawn of this truth al- 
ready ; and if we fail then is liberty lost and freedom finds its 
hopeless grave. And if this Samson of Liberty shall be betrayed 
into the hands of his foes, and be made to grind sightless in 
the prison house, and be brought at last, into the temple of his en- 
emies, there to make sport for them, he will indeed lay hold of the 
pillars of the temple, and bow himself to find his own destruction ; 
but he will also, in that moment, carry with him in his fall, all 
those who have confederated against him and mocked at him in 
his woe. 

I do not desire to injure the Southern people in thought, wox-d, 
or deed. I want to give them every allowance of their just dues; 
and so do you. I do not wish them to lose one farthing of their 
just rights and privileges; neither do you. I would labor and 
strive, to secure and defend their liberty, just as I would to main- 
tain my own; and so would every one of you. 

But why not then, says one, have granted them their desires 
and permitted them to separate from us, as Lot from Abraham, in 



10 

peace. That would have been my desire, if, in the first place, they 
could have been permitted fairly to give such an expression of 
their untramelled wishes m the matter, and if, secondly, tliey had 
endeavored to secure their separation as did Lot and Abraham, in 
a way which would not have been destructive alike to our liberties 
with their own. But they did not have the opportunity thus to 
express freely their wishes in the matter ; and their doctrine of a 
forced Secession, upon which they are acting, is a fatal stab at all 
permanent government under a free constitution, a death blow at 
all forms of voluntary union of free and independent people. This 
is a selfish deed of theirs. They have not consulted our mutual 
interests at all. They have no right to burn their own house when 
that burning endangers ours. Peaceable separation I know, is far 
j)referable to a forced union. That the latter could not co-exist 
with liberty, I firmly believe ; and were it possible to-day, to for- 
get all that has been done and is doing, and to separate from them 
in peace, without endangering the first fundamental principles of 
constitutional freedom, for myself, I would heartily agree to it and 
rejoice in the result. 

If all hostilities should cease to-day, and they should come in a 
way that might be constitutional (and I would agree to make it so, 
for the sake of peace) and ask, of their own accord, to be separat- 
ed, with a proper regard for mutual interests I would, even now, 
although they have so deeply wronged the government, accede to 
it, only so that our liberties be not infringed. And I see how no 
one can jiossibly go farther than this in their favor, and still pre- 
serve his honor and his faith. I am willing as a Christian man, to 
be as conciliatory as possible, and to yield as much as possible 
within the limits of uninjured liberty. But this does not appear 
possible to-day. They have chosen a different way and they must 
walk in it. They have arisen in armed hostility, determined to 
effect their separation by the sword, reckless as to the destruction 
of that government under which they were born and bred, and 
from which they would now escape. And they will have to learn 
that we have liberties to protect as well as they, and that if they 
will destroy their own freedom, they shall not, without a fearful 
struggle, with it also destroy ours. Liberty will not allow them 
to destroy our best and brightest interests, in the pursuit of their 
selfish purposes ; — that would be unbounded license for them, but 
tyranny for us. 

But it may be said, why not let tliem go out at once; you can- 
not subjugate them, nor in a free land, hold them as a conquered 



11 

province, under bondage. I reply, we do not desire to subjugate 
any one ; we desire, if we could have our way, to know no bond- 
age in our noble land ; and after we shall have conquered the ene- 
mies of liberty, if God Avill so mercifully grant, we will then, I 
firmly believe, have no desire to do otherwise than to restore all 
the nation to that common freedom with ourselves, which it has 
hitherto enjoyed. We battle for their freedom to-day, as well as 
for our own. But we cannot let them go out in the way which 
they have chosen, because this would be a forced recognition of a 
principle which involves our national life and all its hopes. Wo 
cannot consent to bleed to death, as a body politic, because one 
hand may desire to sever from that body, in its own rough, unskill- 
ful way, the arm to which it is attached. Says an eloquent writer 
and theologian,* in treating upon this subject, " This is no mere 
question of the ascendency of one section of the country or of an- 
other; of the triumph of one system of labor, or form of social life 
over another ; but it is the question whether we are to continiie to 
exist as a nation, or become a congeries of independent nations — 
whether our government shall remain as the Parthenon Avas, Avhen 
Pericles left it, the admiration of the world, or become what the 
Parthenon now is, with scarcely one stone upon another. It is a 
qixestion of national existence, whether we are, ever have been, or 
sliall continue to be, a nation at all." At this national existence, 
the doctrine of those who now war against the government, is a 
death blow. "It is no abstraction. It is not merely an idea. It 
does not merely hurt the understanding and shock the common 
sense of men, to deny our national character. It affects our vital 
interests. It effects equally the rights and Avelfare of Nortli and 
South." The doctrine of Secession, if admitted, throws the whole 
country into chaos; ignores at the outset, every constitutional 
remedy, and takes the law into its own hands ; leaves no security 
of permanent national existence and peace ; affords no stability of 
government to give firmness to trade, energy to business, and secur- 
ity to the title of property ; upsets, at one fell blow, that whole 
glorious fabric of laws and agreements which form our national 
com])act; drags the keystone of our national arch down from its 
15i*oud place; makes us despicable in the eyes of other nations, and 
incapable of self-protection alike against foreign foes and the con- 
flicting interests of our own internal forces ; destroys law as such, 
by sapping its strength and leaving obedience thereto to the option 

•Dr. Ilodgo, Princeton Eoviow, Auril, ISGl. 



12 

of the lawless ; changes protection of life and property to a fleeting 
phantom, because it takes away the power of punishing crime, 
save by the vengeance of the wronged j in that it permits the of- 
fender to place himself at will, outside of the pale of government; 
impairs, in short, every national right of a free people; imperils 
every sacred interest of our homes, our families and our lives ; and 
surrenders the reins of government to be battled for, between an- 
archy on the one hand and tyranny on the other. Its legitimate 
fruits may already be seen in the condition of those States where 
it holds present sway, Avith tyranny greater than that of the Grand 
Vizier, because more lawless and divided amongst more despotic 
hands. Nor is this all. 

We have other interests still, at stake. If such a *^principle 
should triumph, where would be our boasted religious privileges ; 
for history proves that these do ever go hand in hand with civil 
freedom. Where would be the sacred right to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of an untrammelled conscience, where these 
free temples of devotion, where the peaceful fireside altar, where 
the open Bible, when the ploughshare shall become the sword, as 
a necessity of self-protection against the thousand wai'ring^ inter- 
ests of all those divisions of States and communities, which would 
inevitably follow the recognition of this principle. 

It cannot be. It is absurd iipon its face. It is a desperate re- 
sort of iniquity. As well might I, an humble citizen, attempt to 
secede from this community, declare my independence of it, defy 
its laws, maltreat its officers of justice and freely wrong its citizens 
and ruin their property, whilst still maintaining my residence in it, 
as to recognize this odious principle. No ! There is one resort 
open to every man, and therein consists his liberty — 'to reform laws 
if they appear oppressive ; or, failing in that, to dispose of his prop- 
erty, or to carry it with him and go out personally from that com- 
munity himself, but not to force out with him the property of 
others, or in its bosom to maintain an armed independence. This 
latter can never consist with true liberty. It is the first step of 
tyranny. 

Says the Rev. Dr. Hodge, again, " iSTothing can be more dear or 
sacred to a people than their national life. The destruction of the 
life of a nation, is a thousand times worse than suicide, for it is 
not merely self-destruction, but the destruction of posterity. In 
that life is bound uj) all their liberties and hopes. It is their very 
blood and breath. And no doctrine that impairs it, can be for a 



18 

moment entertained. And, hearers, we Tvill not entertain it; we 
cannot aftbrd to do it. AVe will not bring into onr State, this 
wooden horse tilled with tliat concealed host, which will burn our 
homes, carry desolation to all our possessions, death to our families 
and, at the best, slavery to ourselves. It cannot be. Better were 
it to die in its oi)position, than be reduced to death in submission 
to it. We cannot admit such a doctrine, and with the help of God 
we loill not. "We recognize indeed the right of revolution, but we 
recognize also tlie right to suppress revolution, when the perma- 
nency of a good government is endanged thereby. That this is 
the best government the sun ever shone upon, may be proved even 
IVom late admissions of prominent leaders of Secession both po- 
litical and clerical.* This government is so endangered to-day 
and we must maintain our liberties. We might consent to the loss 
of a member, even of several members, but not in such a manner 
as would bring upon us at once national death. 

We owe this defence to those patriots, our fathers, who so dear- 
ly purchased our national liberty with their blood and established 
our national existence for themselves and for us, with their cove- 
nant oaths. We owe a duty to them. We must regard their 
sacred obligations. We must at all hazards maintain their legacy, 
our birthrights. 

Neither is this liberty merely our own. We hold it also in 
trust for others. We must enjoy it while we may, but as we have 
received it from our fathers, so it must be transmitted to our de- 
scendents ; and we must hand it down to them unimpaired. Ours 
would be everlasting shame, did that liberty and glorious nation- 
ality perish, in its passage through our hands. We cannot aftbrd 
to prepare thus beforehand, lasting infamy for ourselves, and call 
down upon us the eternal execration of coming generations, the 
curses of those to whom we shall have left a legacy of bondage. 
This, Brethren, is not the battle of a day. Ui)on the present decis- 
ion of this question hang the interests of nations yet unborn — upon 
it rest the destinies of those who will hereafter look to us, for their 
place and power among the nations of the earth. Shall we give 
them the lot of anarchy or despotism ; or shall we perish, if per- 
ish we must, in the efiort to bequeath to them that holy heritage of 
liberty we have ourselves thus far enjoyed? Who can doubt the 
answer? Who can fail in this day of peril ? 

*See late speeches of A. H. Stevens of Georgia, and the Fast Day Sermou of Dr. J. H. Thorii- 
well, of S. C. 



14 

We likewise guard this liberty to-day not only for ourselves, but 
for others of our own generation. To us the oppressed of every 
nation are now turning, with earnest, watchful gaze. Shall tyrants, 
as they press down the iron heel uj^on their necks point them to 
us, and bid them look to see the extinguishment in our hands, of 
all their hopes, and learn the lesson that immortal man, even under 
the most favorable circumstances, is incapable of self-government? 

To us, many of the oppressed have already fled, as to an asylum 
of freedom. Shall we betray their trust and by our present action 
tell them that there is, and can be, no home of the free, no refuge 
from tyranny? To us as their polar star, nations in bondage are 
turning in hope. We are trying the experiment not merely for 
ourselves, but for the world. 

To us, rejuvenated Italy, having found at last the Fountain of 
Youth, just rising by main strength and the help of God, into the 
new day of prospective liberty, now anxiously looks, in the result 
of our present crisis, to read her own future destiny. Shall we 
tell her that liberty is a phantom, and freedom an impossibility, 
and bid her desist in her holy struggle and bow her neck to the 
galling yoke at once ? Shall we tell her, that her Garibaldi shall 
tremble but for a moment on the pinnacle of immortal fame, only 
to sink with our own great Wasliington, to the grave of disappoint- 
ment and oblivion, as the fanciful pursuer of an unattainable pos- 
session, as the hero of a bubble which will burst? No. Ten 
thousand times. No. It cannot be. By the help of God, it shall 
not be. We will still be free. We will still stand w^ith open arms, 
to welcome the oppressed of every nation to our hospitable shores 
and liberty shall still smile in their embrace. We will tell the 
world that liberty is eternal, and give to Poland, Hungary and 
Italy, and all the enslaved everywhere, an assurance of complete, 
joyful success, which shall fill with new fire their hearts. We will 
transmit, defended with our blood, that sacred boon which our 
fathers bought with theirs, to the everlasting gratitude of posteri- 
ty, who, by that double example incited, will never dare to betray 
it ; and thus, in our hands and theirs, that goddess of the free 
shall become immortal. 

If forty centuries, looking down from the Egyjitian pyramids up- 
on the soldiers of Bonaparte, nerved their arms for xxnholy con- 
quest, how ought the thought that liberty is looking down upon us 
to-day from her eternal mountain, strengthen our hearts and hands 
for the defence of her holy cause. We owe this defence to every 



15 

principle of right and duty — to the past, to the present, to tho 
future and to God. 

We owe it to the cause of Christ. It is His cause that I plead 
here to-day. Tliat cause in its progress and existence is fear- 
fully endangered. God has wonderfully recognized our liberty as 
his own gift, and the outworking of his own heavenly laws in 
our midst. Never since time began, does history show that 
any nation, not even excepting God's own chosen people, has 
been more blessed of Ilim, in national prosperity and honor. — 
Never has the cause of Christ more rapidly and steadfastly and 
certainly advanced. Never has prayer been more abimdantly an- 
swex'ed — never have hearts been moi-e inclined to pray and serve 
God. Never have so many and efficient instrumentalities been 
devised and kept in work, for the advancement of the gloiy of 
God. Science, Art, Civilization, llefinement and Religion have 
made giant strides, whilst our banner has defiantly floated on, 
across the continent from ocean to ocean, and has everywhere 
brought tears of joy to the eyes of those thirsting for freedom, in 
every foreign land and on every sea ; alike sheltering the refugee 
from despotism, and with the wings of commerce bearing food and 
raiment to the suffering and the poor. 

This liberty is evidently the gift of God. Its betrayal would 
"be a terrific blow to the cause of righteousness the earth over, for 
it seems that tyrants are almost everywhere else than here, and 
Christianity cannot flourish under the tyrant's sway. 

We are the beacon light of Christianity for the world. Shall 
that light be at once extinguished, and the many vessels freighted 
with precious, immortal hopes, be left at sea, to drive before ad- 
verse winds in the dark night upon hostile shores, or to strand 
upon undiscovered reefs ? No ! it must not be. We owe it to tho 
cause of Christ to see to it, that it shall not be. He has said, "If 
the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." And it is 
our solemn duty for His sake to " stand fast therefore in that lib- 
erty wherewith Christ maketh us free." 

I believe that God's hand is in this storm. I am assured that it 
will be His voice alone, that will at last speak peace to the angry 
waves. I have no fears as to the final result. I hope for a speedy 
consummation. God is with us, as he was with our fathers. I 
trust that this is the preparation for better times. I know not but 
it is a harbinger of millenial days. I believe that these are some 
of those " all things" Avhich shall " work together for good, to 



16 



them that love God." We see now as through a ghiss darkly, but 
we shall soon see face to face. Now we walk l^y faith, and not 
by sight. Now it is the night, but soon the morning will dawn ; 
and I pray God it be the morning of that day of the Prince of 
Peace, who shall receive the kingdoms of the world for his in- 
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, 
whose dominion shall extend from sea to sea, and from the river 
to the ends of the earth. 

But whatever maybe God's purpose for the future, we live in 
the present, and our duty lies here. It becomes each one of us to 
look the matter squarely in the face and seek counsel of God as to 
this duty. I have endeavored so to do. The result is, that I am 
impelled to the most painful duty of my life. I would shrink 
back from the conclusion if I dared. I have endeavored to imi- 
tate the children of Israel, and go mourning before the Lord, to ask 
counsel of Him. I have reached a decision. It has been in no 
moment of feverish excitement. It costs greater sacrifices from 
me than from many. It has been against the prejudices of all my 
past life. It has been at the sundering of some of the tenderest 
cords of friendship. It clashes with aU the fond memories of a 
sainted mother's homo and ardent affection. But how can I hesi- 
tate and still love my country? I can attain to no other decision. 
My duty to my country and her flag is before all others, when her 
existence, with all that it involves, is at stake. Liberty calls me 
and I come. Blessed Liberty ! gift of God sent down to man as a 
foretaste of that eternal freedom promised to His children, I bow 
before thee to-day. On thy shrine I lay my heart; to thee I bring 
the consecration of my life's highest purposes and aim. I am 
thine, entirely thine. Accept, I pray, the feeble gift. 

And, Brethren, what else can you do '? Our Southern friends 
may have been wronged in our thoughts, but not I verily believe, 
in a single act or intention. They had a right to have their 
wrongs righted. But in doing this, no right of Secession or revo- 
lution, or by whatever name it may be called, which ignores our 
equal rights, could bring to them the duty or liberty^'of forcing 
this other tremendous wrong upon us, and our common national 
mother. Now, we have been wronged ; for liberty has been threat- 
ened and attacked, and her banner dishonored by its own sons. 
This is a wrong to us, beside which all their supposititous wrongs 
sink into infinite littleness. They have no right to force us to the 
surrender of our common liberty and by the grace of God they 



17 

shall not do it. Let us prny against that dire result. Let us 
work against it. If needs be let us take up the sword of the Lord 
to prevent it. Not for vengeance; no, not to shed one single 
drop of blood more than is absolutely required to reinstate that 
trenil)ling statue of freedom upon its firm, immovable pedestal. — ■ 
But to do all that; to make liberty as guaranteed by the Constitu- 
tion, as firm as the granite hills and as enduring. 

In the present crisis the counsel of the Lord seems to be found 
as we ask with tears, " Shall I go up again to battle against the 
children of Benjamin, my brother," in the solemn answer of 
the text " Go up against him." And then, when they Avho have 
wrought this evil shall have met their just retribution, and the 
national laws and ])restige shall have been re-established, then, 
as Israel unto Benjamin, so Avill we restore to our brethren, their 
forfeited jsrivileges and endeavor as brethren still, to assist them 
by every means in our power, to re-attain their former rights and 
position. But to-day the nation demands our support. We must 
first render our liberties secure. 

We must stand by the flag of our country, for it is the emblem 
of all that was precious to our sires, all that is holy and dear to our- 
selves, and all the hopes of children's children. Upon that flag 
is perched our destinies. There either joyously waves the victory 
of liberty and right, or mournfully droops at half-mast, the defeat 
of man's brightest hopes and of the means of his loftiest eternal 
attainments. 

When .our sires gave us that flag, it was as no empty show, nor 
merely as a token, by which we might be distinguished from other 
nations. It was so framed that it might speak to us always, and 
going with us, in every circumstance and under every condition of 
life, constantly be a sacred reminder of the price of our liberty and 
God's recognition of it as a righteous liberty. It Avas blazoned 
with no birds, nor beasts, nor creeping things. Neither the lion, 
nor the eagle, nor the sci-ijent was there. They caught up an im- 
maculate banner of " pure, celestial white," which told of the un- 
S])otted chastity of the liberty they sought, and across its ample 
folds they laid the deeply dyed stripes of that red blood, by which 
this liberty was so dearly attained, to tell us at once its jiurity and 
its price. Then they put forth their hands, and caught from the 
skies above them, a section of the blue of heaven with the stars 
already fixed in their places there, and set it in that banner's high- 
est fold, to tfell us that our government is a part of the handicraft 



18 

of God, and that as the stars are fixed by His hand, in the heavens, 
so are these States set in their places, in the etherial blue of our 
national sky— that there they may revolve in their appointed 
orbits, but that they may not rush madly from their tracks, to 
bring destruction upon themselves and confusion to others. And 
as star after star has arisen from time to time above our horizon 
the morning stars have sung together at the goodness of God to 
them. Shall these stripes of ancestral blood be blotted out and 
that white be changed to black? Shall darkness overtake our sky 
and the stars be torn from their orbits there, only to leave for us 
as a nation instead, a bleak, desolate, eternal night ? It remains 
for us to answer. 

No ! Brethren ; that banner is the emblem of our liberties. It 
gives us national light and life. As such an emblem and speak- 
ing such destinies, my countrymen, Lovers of Freedom, give that 
flag your heart; give it your constant prayers ; give it yom- unfail- 
ing strength ; if need be give it your life. It will not be a life lost 
to the world. Pray for the peace of the land, but only peace in 
victory and the maintenance of eternal liberty. In the name of 
the Lord that victory shall be attained. And as it is now in om* 
hearts to purpose, and resolve, and dare, so let it be to the end, 
without wavering and without fear. 

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
Between their loved homos, and the war's desolation ! 
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. 
Then conquer We must, for our cause it is just ; 
And this be our motto — " In God is our trust" — 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph sJiall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the bravo. 

So help us King of Kings and Lord of Hosts. 



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